Ship recycling company expects work to keep coming

In this file photo, the former Algoma Central Corp. vessel Algoway is towed into Port Colborne, headed for Marine Recycling Corp.'s yard on the east pier of the Welland Canal. In front is the tug Evans McKeil. - Dave Johnson,The Welland Tribune

With five vessels currently awaiting or undergoing recycling, Marine Recycling Corp. founder Wayne Elliott doesn't see work coming to an end at any time soon in Port Colborne.

"We believe there's work in Canada for us for the next 20 years and beyond," said Elliott in an interview during a tour of the facility on the east pier at the entrance of the Welland Canal.

"We're pretty busy."

The five vessels at the yard include the cement carrier Paul H. Townsend, formerly part of the Inland Lakes Management fleet; the cement carrier English River, formerly part of the Lafarge Ltd. fleet; the medium-sized self-unloading bulk carriers Algorail and Algoway, formerly part of Algoma Central Corp.'s fleet; and the Princess of Acadia, a roll-on/roll-off passenger and motor vehicle ferry that travelled between Digby, N.S. and Saint John, N.B.

In addition to Port Colborne, the company's yard in Sydney, N.S. is busy with recycling vessels as well.

"We're currently focused on warships there … still working some of those and looking at other government bids. We're good and busy."

Elliott's start in the ship recycling business began when he started working summers with his father.

"My dad started with another family in Hamilton in 1959. I learned how to run a crane and use a torch."

In 1983, father and son teamed up and started their own company, carrying out ship conversion work for Upper Lakes Shipping in Hamilton first.

"We came to Port Colborne and started ship breaking … Upper Lakes was our partner at the time. We went on until 1990 when at that point we had cleaned up all of the surplus ships available."

For that seven-year period work was carried out on the east pier of the Welland Canal.

"We went dormant until 1993, and then started up again and have been going ever since."

From 1994 to 1997 recycling work was carried out at a yard off the Grand River in Port Maitland, and from 1997 on the company has been operating in Port Colborne.

"We worked on two submarines and a naval destroyer at Port Maitland."

Elliot said the Port Colborne yard will continue to be busy with at least 12 lakers he knows of slated for recycling, which would take them to the next round of lakers down the road.

"We're here to stay in the lakes and on the East Coast and look forward to another generation of work."

In addition to lakers and naval vessels, Elliott said a new stream of marine recycling through the federal government's abandoned and wrecked vessel program could one day help the company.

"We've heard different numbers … there could be 2,000 abandoned vessels in Canada, mostly pleasure craft, sailboats, wooden boats, plastic boats. Many are sunk or tied to a dock and abandoned."

Figuring out how to deal with and recycle those vessels is something Marine Recycling Corp. is consulting with with federal agencies like Transport Canada, Public Works, Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

"Department of Fisheries and the Coast Guard have their own vessels that need to be retired and recycled … vessels beyond their ideal date of service."

Elliott said in talks with the federal government, the company has been encouraged to set up on Canada's West Coast and is exploring its options and potential locations.

"There hasn't been a ship recycling company out there for the last 25 years. There are a lot of ships out there, ferries and other vessels and there are no options for recycling them."

He said there's no way to justify an ocean tow across the Pacific to recycling yards in Asia, and added Canada has decided its own vessels won't leave the country to be recycled.

Elliott said Chinese yards will stop taking foreign vessels and that many of those yards took a big hit like Marine Recycling did when the scrap market crashed in 2015 reaching an all-time 50 year low.

"The Chinese will only do Chinese-flagged vessels now," he said, adding many of yards there were doing things right when it came to safety and the environment.

Elliott said taking apart and recycling a ship is not easy and there are many precautions around safety and the environment that come into play.

Work on the Princess of Acadia in terms of asbestos abatement will cost the company at least $1 million.

"It's one of the largest asbestos abatement jobs we've ever hard. We knew that at bid time though. We do a thorough inspection of the vessels. The single biggest thing in our experience in terms of both the time it takes and the cost is asbestos, it always has been.

"We're really an environmental company," he said.

In addition to asbestos, Marine Recycling crews have to be aware of and properly remove and dispose of things PCBs, oils, fuel, chemicals, grease, and paint. Samples and testing programs are carried out so the company knows what it is dealing with inside a vessel.

"There's a format we go through."

Having vessels docked along the canal makes it easier for crews to get on board and remove everything that needs to be before a ship is ever cut apart.

In places like Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, vessels are broken on the shore with the vessel still in the water and the stern, where many potential contaminants are located, the last piece to be recycled, said Elliott.

"Alongside the docks here we can deal with the pollutants first."

As to why companies, including Canadian ones, will sell their vessels for scrap overseas to scrapyards in countries like Turkey, it comes down to money.

"They can pay more and absorb the ocean tow, which I find surprising."

The rules in terms of both safety and the environment are lax as compared to Canada, as are the wages, he added.

"We can never compete with the low wages and conditions of those yards. We can't change our standards or cutback when it comes to safety and the environment … it's against our company culture."

Elliott said safety is taken very seriously at both recycling yards, it comes first.

"We can't have our people injured. Our guys are very conscious and aware of what they are doing. One day there may be a stairway heading down (inside a ship) and the next it might be gone."

The most serious incident involving an employee and injury in Port Colborne took place in 2004. A chain anchor moved and trapped the 21-year-old man inside. It took Port Colborne Fire and Emergency Services and firefighters from Buffalo Fire Department's heavy rescue company five hours to free the man, who ended up with a broken lower leg and foot.

Elliott said every precaution is taken when employees are dealing with the removal of various contaminants, as well.

"We remove things that our guys could snag and rip their environmental suits on during asbestos removal."

He said that's why people may not see much in the way of progress when a vessel is brought in to Port Colborne.

There are up to 25 employees working to remove everything inside first.

"It could take months and months and the shape of the ship doesn't change. There's a method to our madness of how we work in the yard."

Weather also plays a part when it comes to taking apart the vessels.

"We have to tie them up like there's a hurricane coming. We have 300-ton capacity cranes and we have to watch when we are lifting and moving very large pieces … they act like sails."

Elliott said the company has an expansion plan for the Port Colborne yard and is working with the city and St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. to use more of the land on the pier.

That plan, he said, would allow the company to take more work on as it develops new technology to take apart the ships. Part of the plan would also see mostly whole vessels pulled from the water and taken apart on land.

"This is something we have been working on for a long time. Our main constraint here is berth space."

As to where all of the scrap metal goes once on shore, Elliott said for the next couple years it will head to Stelco's Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke. The steel from the vessels is a mild steel the company can use.

"Our non-ferrous metals go to other Canadian metal manufacturers. We've had these relationships for a long time."

Source: the standards. 03 September 2018

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news-story/8876972-ship-recycling-company-expects-work-to-keep-coming/